Piston.my

Latest News

Although the recent developments concerning the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Groupe PSA have had fans of the Italian brands (under FCA) worried about their future, it’s still ‘business as usual’ for those brands until such time the new management looks at the enlarged single entity. That could take a while and where Maserati is concerned, it will continue its modernisation work at the Modena plant in Italy.

There are also plans a big event in May 2020 when it will be celebrating its roots and its more than a century of history.  The business was founded in Bologna in December 1914 and its mechanical workshop began activities in the middle of the same month. The Maserati brothers were passionate about mechanical engineering and loved speed, quite happy to get behind the wheel of a racing car themselves, despite their many technical and commercial commitments.

Maserati Tipo A6
Maserati Tipo A6

Another brother, Mario, contributed by creating the famous Trident logo (inspired by the Fountain of Neptune in the centre of Bologna) and their brother Bindo joined Officine Maserati in 1932, after Alfieri’s death.

Maserati Tipo 26
Maserati Tipo 26

The first car to bear the Trident logo was built in 1926. It was the Tipo 26 (pictured above), a racing car which debuted at the Targa Florio that same year, winning first place in the class up to 1.5 L, with Alfieri Maserati at the wheel. This was the first in a long series of successes, including two consecutive editions of the Indianapolis 500 (1939 and 1940), four consecutive victories in the Targa Florio (1937, 1938, 1939 and 1940), nine F1 wins and the 1957 F1 World Championship with Juan Manuel Fangio.

More recently, Maserati returned to its winning ways with the MC12, the car which, between 2005 and 2010, won 6 FIA GT international championships, the highest-level racing category for production-derived GT cars.

Maserati remained in Bologna until 1939. In late September 1939, following the acquisition of the Brand by the Orsi family, operations began for the transfer of the company to Modena, where the Orsi family’s businesses were based, to build new cars, invest in research and innovation and become Modena’s most globally famous brand. The production site where the plant is still located, officially opened its doors on January 1, 1940.

Maserati Modena plant
The Maserati plant in Modena in 1958.

The year 1947 marked the end of one era and the start of a new one. The Maserati brothers’ collaboration with the company ended while the brand launched its first road car, the A6 1500. In 1963, Maserati started another new phase of its history: with the launch of the Quattroporte, it created a completely new, previously non-existent market segment, that of high-performance luxury sedans.

After the brief period under the ownership of Citroen (1967-1975), during which the French owners introduced the first modern industrial processes, in the following De Tomaso period (1976-1993), the Modena plant created and sold a model destined to be one of the brand’s best-known, best-selling cars: the Biturbo.

The acquisition by Fiat in 1993 was the start of yet another major new chapter and which led to Maserati coming under the control of Ferrari in September 1997. These were years of major transformations as well as the birth of the 3200 GT (1998), followed by the Spyder (2001), a car which marked the important return to the US market. In 2005, Maserati was separated from Ferrari and returned to the control of the Fiat Group.

2007 was a very successful year, with the debut at the Detroit Motor Show of the Quattroporte (5th generation) with automatic transmission, enabling an important step forward, especially in markets such as the USA, Japan and the Middle East. The same year saw the presentation at the Geneva International Motor Show of the GranTurismo, another milestone in Maserati’s history.

First SUV - the Levante
First SUV – the Levante

In 2009, it was the turn of the GranCabrio, followed by other new products that significantly renewed the range: the new Quattroporte (now in 6th generation and presented at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show), the Ghibli (Shanghai Motor Show in 2013) and the Levante (2016 Geneva International Motor Show), the first SUV for the Brand.

Maserati Headquarters

After over a century of history, the Modena plant is producing cars sold in more than 70 markets, all which stand out for their luxury, elegance, style, performance and quality. These characteristics have made Maserati a true Italian icon at the global level. With the strength of over a century of history, Maserati is now ready to start a new era in May 2020.

PISTON.MY

When US-based Genovation Cars talked about developing an all-electric supercar model which would be adapted from the Chevy Corvette Z06 and be powered by two electric motors instead of a 7-litre V8, it set ambitious goals: 700 bhp with 815 Nm of torque and a range of 240 kms.

Since rolling out the first prototype known as the Genovation Extreme Electric (or GXE for short), the company has been setting new records with the car which actually manages to deliver up to 800 bhp and a range of 280 kms. Some are significant world records, including an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for a street-legal electric car with a speed of 190.48 mph (306.7 km/h) for the standing mile.

New speed record
The performance continues to improve and this month, the GXE broke its previous top speed record set in September 2019. The new world record of 211.8 mph (341 km/h), witnessed and certified by the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA) was achieved during Straight Line Aerodynamic Testing at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

2019 Genovation GXE

“During this December test, we broke our previous speed record that was set in September of this same year. That earlier record run was hampered by strong crosswinds, so we were confident that under better weather conditions, we could improve upon that result,” said Andrew Saul, CEO of Genovation Cars, Inc.

“We are thrilled to be the only electric car manufacturer to not only test our vehicle’s record-breaking capabilities, but to validate and achieve this milestone not once, not twice, but three times. Based on the early analysis of the data generated from the new record, we’re confident that we can gain efficiencies which will result in further top-end speeds,” Saul said, adding that the GXE continues to be the fastest street-legal all-electric supercar in the world.

2019 Genovation GXE

Although the exterior is adapted from a Corvette, the rest of the GXE was designed from the ground up to have a low centre of gravity and near 50/50 weight distribution, making it a true driver’s car.

Customers can order the supercar with either a 7-speed manual – an all-electric supercar category exclusive – or an 8-speed paddle-shift automatic transmission.

Genovation GXE

The GXE also comes equipped with a programmable active suspension, carbon ceramic Brembo brakes, state-of-the-art carbonfibre wheels, an ultra-high fidelity 10-speaker JBL stereo, a 10.4-inch custom high definition centre console touchscreen and bespoke exterior and interior.

2019 Genovation GXE

Philosophy of sustainability
“One of our primary objectives is to reduce the use of petrochemicals and energy used to make our cars. Some of the sustainable parts we intend to use are commercially available off the shelf. These include seats made with soy-based foam. Where traditional tyres usually require up to 19 litres of oil for production, we plan to utilize tyres made from natural rubber infused with small amounts of orange peel oil, a by-product of the beverage industry,” said Saul.

“The batteries we plan to use have the most stable lithium-battery chemistry on the market and are 100% non-toxic. They can be reused for stationary back-up power before eventually being recycled,” he added.

2019 Genovation GXE

Other areas where Genovation is exploring sustainability are more experimental. Testing on some materials has already been conducted and all potential options will be explored in a carefully conducted and scientific manner.

“We are studying the possibility of using composite materials made from natural, non-toxic and renewable products, such as soy-based resins rather than petrochemical resins and natural fibres made from basalt (derived from volcanic rock), jute, bamboo and burlap for trim pieces and body panels. Customers will have the option to order seat fabric made from wool,” Saul explained.

2019 Genovation GXE

The GXE will be produced in a limited-edition run of 75 units, with initial customer deliveries scheduled in 2020. Although the price mentioned early during the development was US$330,000, the company is now setting a pricetag of US$750,000 (equivalent to RM3.095 million).

PISTON.MY

With over 500 confirmed orders – and over 400 having already been delivered – the Proton X70 is set to become one of the official vehicles for Public Sector Super Scale (JUSA) officers. The decision by the Malaysian government and SPANCO (the fleet management service provider for the government) to order the SUV for its fleet is an important achievement for Proton.

The X70’s role as an official government vehicle was strengthened recently when a unit of the SUV was delivered to the Ministry of Finance for Dato’ Shahrol Anuwar Sarman, Statutory Bodies Division Secretary for the Strategic Management Division.

Proton X70
From left: Fazli Hisham Shukor, Director of Proton Corporate Sales, and Hazrin Fazail Haroon, Director of Proton Group Engineering at the handover of the X70 to Dato’ Shahrol Anuwar Sarman, Statutory Bodies Division Secretary for the Strategic Management Division of Ministry of Finance, accompanied by Shaheeran Jalalludin, Operations Head of SPANCO.

While the delivery was of a single unit of the X70, the significance of the event is expected to have far wider consequences. “The Proton X70 has been an invaluable contributor to PROTON’s success in 2019 so we are proud it now plays a formal role for the public services sector. This proves its suitability for a number of tasks including representing various ministries at local and international level events. We are also therefore expecting to receive more orders for the Proton X70 from various government departments in 2020,” said Dr. Li Chunrong, Chief Executive Officer of Proton.

Earlier in December, it was announced a fleet of Proton X70s would be used to support the year-long Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2020 forum. This should provide good exposure for the model as well as Proton at a major international event.

Proton X70

“Proton will continue to work closely with service providers such as SPANCO to ensure we can support the need for official vehicles by public sector agencies and government departments. As a Malaysian automotive brand, we want to continue to show our support for the country and play a role in nation building,” Dr. Li said.

PISTON.MY

On January 1, 2020, the new law on compulsory usage of child restraint systems (CRS) comes into effect. This complements an earlier law requiring all occupants in the vehicle to use the seatbelts and now, small children who cannot use such restraint systems must be placed in childseats.

There are grumbles about the cost of getting childseats, especially for those with many children – not uncommon in Malaysia. The government is looking into solutions for such cases but stands by its position that the law will still be implemented even though it may be an unpopular move. The benefits in reducing deaths is significant enough that the government is willing to ‘take the heat’.

Installation of childseats should be in the rear; placing them at the front passenger’s seat should be only be done if really necessary. And apart from ensuring that they are installed securely (the ISOFIX points in most modern vehicles ensure this), having them facing rearwards is better.

Childseats

Fact: small children highly vulnerable in car accidents
To understand why the rearward-facing position is better, we need to look back at the history of childseats. For a long time, it had been observed by automobile safety researchers that small children were highly vulnerable in car accidents. Although 3-point seatbelts were available, they were not suitable because of the smaller size of children.

In 1964, using the same idea that protected astronauts from the effects of the tremendous g-forces experienced during a rocket’s lift-off into space, Professor Bertil Aldman in Sweden designed a rearward-facing childseat.

Childseat

The purpose of this seat was to distribute the forces of a frontal collision over a large part of the child’s body, ie the entire back, neck and head, and also to provide support to the spine during the course of an accident.

The way the seat was constructed and installed was particularly important for small children as a conventional forward-facing restraint system would not provide sufficient support to the child’s unproportionally large head and a neck that was still fairly weak compared to an adult’s.

ISOFIX

ISOFIX
ISOFIX points (left) are usually found in the rear seats and enable the childseats to be easily and securely installed.

Strict regulations
By the end of the 1960s, the first rearward-facing child seat became available and was intended for children between 9 months and 4 years old. In 1973, new regulations were introduced in Sweden pertaining to the approval of CRS and were so stringent that only those with a rearward-facing design could be approved by the authorities.

Researchers at Volvo began compiling data on the way children (of up to 4 years old) were restrained in cars and there was some evidence of benefits. However, up till the end of the 1970s, awareness of the value of CRS was still not great so statistics were insufficient.

The 1980s, however, seen a rapid rise in childseat usage and virtually all small children travelling in cars in Sweden were properly restrained. Part of the reason for the increased usage by parents was also due to the campaigns to make people aware of the importance of restraint systems for adults and children, something which the authorities in Malaysia have been carrying out.

Improper usage of childseats
Studies have shown that there are two major ways that parents have misused CRS, both of which are dangerous. The child may not be restrained properly or be in a seat that is not the right type for his or her age or worse, the child seat is not mounted correctly, or the child is not restrained in the seat at all.

If a child is not restrained properly in a child seat, the forces during an accident can send him or her flyting around the cabin and sustain serious injuries. In an extreme situation – and there have been cases reported – the child may even be ejected through the window.

A correctly-used child seat can help to reduce the risk of fatal injuries by approximately 70% but for a partially-misused child seat (eg wrong size), the reduction is approximately 40% only.

From Volvo’s own investigations of thousands of accidents involving its own vehicles with children in them, the most common type of misuse was found to be that the seat was not fitted according to the instructions. In two cases, the child seat was wrongly fitted facing forward and one of these two cases saw the child sustaining fatal head injuries when the roof intruded into the compartment where the child was seated (but it is not clear whether the child was restrained or not).

Various other studies at the time did not provide reliable conclusions regarding the difference in outcomes between rearward-facing childseats but there was a feeling that they were more ‘positive’ than the corresponding number of forward-facing seats. Over time, as more data was collected, it was increasingly obvious that children in rearward-facing childseats have had the lowest risk of injury (from slight to serious injuries).

An examination of the types of injuries sustained showed that only 5% those in rearward-facing child seats had head injuries whereas 18% of the unrestrained children suffered such injuries. In every case, the highest percentage of injuries was experienced by children without any form of restraint. They are also likely to have injuries to their limbs.

Booster seats
When the children get bigger and taller, they require booster seats that raise their body so it will put them in the correct position to use the seatbelts.

It is interesting to note, however, that those on the booster cushion/seat had relatively high rates of neck and chest injuries, which suggests that the wrong positioning of the seatbelt could have been the cause.

How do the children feel?
In promoting the use of rearward-facing child seats, it is also important to understand how the little users feel. However, the studies undertaken have shown adult attitudes which might not accurately reflect the real experiences of the children.

In one study, observations were made regarding how adults and children travelled. It showed that 66% of all children — but only 25% of all adults — preferred to sit with their backs against the direction of travel. Adults seemed to have a resistance towards travelling backwards so there is a possibility that they may have a misconception regarding the experience of the child.

BMW childseat

Various studies suggest that the greatest problem in connection with the use of the childseat is that the child does not like it preventing him or her from moving around, especially during long trips. This is not peculiar to rearward-facing seats as a similar problem, with the same magnitude, would also be the case with forward-facing seats. To overcome this, it is suggested that the child be allowed to see and communicate with others in the car; if the driver is alone, the seat can be installed in the front seat where the child can see another person.

Rearward-facing or forward-facing, investigations of many accidents all over the world have shown the importance of proper CRS in preventing a child from being ejected from the car if it should roll over or tumble down the side of a slope.

PISTON.MY

While housewives may be able to limit their driving as their pregnancy progresses, there are many women who will still be driving to work daily. During this journey to parenthood (if it’s the first time), mothers-to-be need to continuously make in-vehicle adjustments to ensure optimal positioning and safety while driving.

To help engineers better understand the needs of expectant mothers, Ford Motor Company designed an ‘empathy belly’ – or pregnancy suit. This maternity suit adds an extra 13.6 kgs of weight (the average weight gained during pregnancy) and simulates the bulkiness and discomfort of the third trimester of pregnancy, helping engineers design vehicles that enable expectant mothers – and a broad range of drivers – to make necessary adjustments that support safe driving.

Based on insights gained from wearing the empathy belly, here are top tips from Ford to further help women drivers on the road to motherhood.

Expectant mothers in cars

Seatbelt safety
Ensure the seatbelt has a snug fit. Pull the seatbelt over the shoulder, between the breasts and to the side of the belly. The lap portion of the belt should be located at the hip, and below – not across – the abdomen, making sure it lies as flat as possible under the curve of the belly. Never put the shoulder belt behind or under the arm, as this can cause serious injury in the event of an accident.

Make proper vehicle adjustments
Move the seat back to a comfortable distance from the pedals, ideally sitting about 25 cm away from the steering wheel, to protect the abdomen if the airbag deploys in a frontal collision. If the car’s steering wheel is adjustable, point the centre of the steering wheel away from the belly and toward the chest. After changing the seat position, be sure to adjust the rearview and outside mirrors. Should backaches occur, place a small round pillow or rolled towel behind the lower back to improve comfort while driving.

Expectant mothers in cars

From snack attacks…to nausea
Food cravings (and ‘morning’ sickness) can happen at any time of day. Be sure to pack plenty of water and favourite snacks to satisfy those cravings. Keep extra ‘nausea bags’ in the purse and glovebox. And always avoid distracted driving – pull over to a safe place when hunger or sickness strikes.

Expectant mothers in cars

Have a rest… or avoid driving
The ‘pregnant brain’ endures more strain than usual, so map out trips in advance (use Waze to see how long the journey might take). Avoid driving long distances if possible, and take frequent breaks to promote blood circulation in the feet, since feet and ankles swell more easily when sitting for extended periods of time. So take a break, and stretch and move the legs, feet and toes.

Better still – avoid driving when possible. For expectant mothers, the middle rear seat is the safest place in a car (as long as it offers a shoulder and lap belt). But if seated in the front passenger seat, push it back as far as possible to protect the abdomen if the airbag deploys.

Expectant mothers in cars

Shop for a childseat
Once the baby has arrived, a childseat will be necessary and an infant seat will be the type to use during the first 2 years. After that, depending on the speed of growth, a bigger seat will be needed. Unless really necessary, the childseat should be installed at the back instead of the front passenger’s seat. A small wide-angle ‘baby mirror’ can be installed on the ceiling so the driver can watch the back without having to turn around frequently.

PISTON.MY

 

The age of autonomous cars – vehicles that can operate without human control – is coming. It’s not charging at us but with the amount of investment and R&D going into such technology, there will come a time when the companies are ready to sell autonomous vehicles. The introduction won’t be global, just as electric vehicles are not sold everywhere even though they have reached commercialisation.

While autonomous technologies have improved substantially, they still ultimately view the drivers around them as obstacles made up of ones and zeros, rather than human beings with specific intentions, motivations, and personalities. For all their fancy sensors and intricate data-crunching abilities, even the most cutting-edge cars lack something that (almost) every teenager with a ‘P’ licence has: social awareness.

Autonomous levels

A team led by researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been exploring whether self-driving cars can be programmed to classify the social personalities of other drivers. This could help them better predict what different cars will do — and, therefore, be able to drive more safely among them.

In a new paper, the scientists integrated tools from social psychology to classify driving behaviour with respect to how selfish or selfless a particular driver is. Specifically, they used something called social value orientation (SVO), which represents the degree to which someone is selfish (‘egoistic’) versus altruistic or cooperative (‘prosocial’). The system then estimates drivers’ SVOs to create real-time driving trajectories for self-driving cars.

Autonomous vehicles

Testing their algorithm on the tasks of merging lanes and making unprotected turns to the left (on US roads where vehicles travel on the right), the team showed that they could better predict the behaviour of other cars by a factor of 25%. For example, in the left-turn simulations, their car knew to wait when the approaching car had a more egoistic driver, and to then make the turn when the other car was more ‘prosocial’.

While not yet robust enough to be implemented on real roads, the system could have some intriguing use cases, and not just for the cars that drive themselves. Say you’re a human driving along and a car suddenly enters your blind spot — the system could give you a warning in the rear-view mirror that the car has an aggressive driver, allowing you to adjust accordingly. It could also allow self-driving cars to actually learn to exhibit more human-like behaviour that will be easier for human drivers to understand.

Autonomous vehicles
Mercedes-Benz researchers have taken prototype autonomous vehicles through various cities around the world to collect data on driving conditions and drivers so as to improve the ‘intelligence’ of the cars.

“Working with and around humans means figuring out their intentions to better understand their behaviour,” said graduate student Wilko Schwarting, who was lead author on the new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “People’s tendencies to be collaborative or competitive often spills over into how they behave as drivers. In this paper, we sought to understand if this was something we could actually quantify.”

Schwarting’s co-authors included MIT professors Sertac Karaman and Daniela Rus, as well as research scientist Alyssa Pierson and former CSAIL postdoc Javier Alonso-Mora.

A central issue with today’s self-driving cars is that they’re programmed to assume that all humans act the same way. This means that, among other things, they’re quite conservative in their decision-making at 4-way stops and other intersections. While this caution reduces the chance of fatal accidents, it also creates bottlenecks that can be frustrating for other drivers, not to mention hard for them to understand. This may be why the majority of traffic incidents have involved getting rear-ended by impatient drivers.

Autonomous driving

“Creating more human-like behaviour in autonomous vehicles (AVs) is fundamental for the safety of passengers and surrounding vehicles, since behaving in a predictable manner enables humans to understand and appropriately respond to the AV’s actions,” said Schwarting.

To try to expand the car’s social awareness, the CSAIL team combined methods from social psychology with game theory, a theoretical framework for conceiving social situations among competing players. The team modeled road scenarios where each driver tried to maximize their own utility and analyzed their ‘best responses’ given the decisions of all other agents.

Based on that small snippet of motion from other cars, the team’s algorithm could then predict the surrounding cars’ behaviour as cooperative, altruistic, or egoistic — grouping the first two as ‘prosocial’. People’s scores for these qualities rest on a continuum with respect to how much a person demonstrates care for themselves versus care for others.

TOYOTA

In the merging and left-turn scenarios, the two outcome options were to either let somebody merge into your lane (‘prosocial’) or not (‘egoistic’). The team’s results showed that, not surprisingly, merging cars are deemed more competitive than non-merging cars.

The system was trained to try to better understand when it’s appropriate to exhibit different behaviours. For example, even the most deferential of human drivers knows that certain types of actions — like making a lane-change in heavy traffic — require a moment of being more assertive and decisive.

“By modeling driving personalities and incorporating the models mathematically using the SVO in the decision-making module of a robot car, this work opens the door to safer and more seamless road-sharing between human-driven and robot-driven cars,” said Rus.

Malaysian motorcyclists
In the context of Malaysian traffic conditions, such advanced intelligent technology may well be valuable in addressing the unpredictability of the many motorcyclists which ride between cars. Of course, it will require extremely quick processing for the autonomous car to respond and react in time to avoid a collision.

The research was supported by the Toyota Research Institute for the MIT team. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research provided support for the specific participation of Mora.

PISTON.MY

Archive

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on YouTube